Mission Statement:
Empowerment through sports & education, creating unique health intiatives, and promoting Aids awareness. Our cornerstone project; The Shoe4Africa children's Hospital.
While continuing to collect and distribute shoes, Shoe4Africa began producing races of its own that quickly attracted entire communities. Running shoes were awarded as prizes to the winners and raffled off to participants. Noting that very few women were entering races even though they were coed, the organization began holding their own women’s only events.
In one town there was a race, 126 men and four women. The women of the village said the husbands told them to stay home, regardless of interest, but the women wanted an event. We changed that; our race was women only: 2,900 came in that same village.
The response was overwhelming, drawing record-breaking attendance in Kenya, Tanzania and Morocco. Today shoe4Africa sponsors several running teams, a soccer team and a running training camp. It also provides full scholarships for a select few young, female runners.
In Africa, running is the most celebrated sport. The continent is famous for producing most of the world’s top distance runners. African running stars are beloved household names on par with Michael Jordan’s popularity in the United States. Meanwhile, AIDS is a four letter word that even medical professionals refuse to utter. Many US AIDS organizations attempting to promote awareness and testing have found themselves stymied at every turn, as their efforts are met with resistance and suspicion.
Shoe4Africa has been uniquely successful in its ability to sidestep many of these pitfalls. Capitalizing upon a nation's love of sports, the organization launched a successful educational outreach program that has become a powerful agent for change. On the sidelines of their wildly popular sporting events, Shoe4Africa provides on-site AIDS testing as well as a platform for some of running’s biggest stars to speak out about HIV/AIDS. At a recent event, 25% of the village of 4,000 lined up for testing! In addition, Shoe4Africa distributed the first ever informational pamphlets printed in the runner’s native language (Kalenjin [download]).
Now in its 13th year, Shoe4Africa continues to take on increasingly ambitious initiatives. Our main focus for this year will be the ongoing Kibera project, and the kick-off of the Hospital project. - please visit The Hospital Project.
Shoe4Africa has broadened its range of initiatives over the years to include sponsored races, training camps, AIDS testing, and athletic scholarships while continuing its core program of collecting and distributing donated shoes.
• December 1995 Shoe4Africa starts in Eldoret, Kenya. Operating by sending over shoes to Kenyan athletes. The first athlete to receive shoes in the following year goes to Europe and runs a 61-minute half marathon at Stramilano, Italy. Yet another athlete wins a medal at the 1998 Commonwealth games.
• June 1999 Shoe4Africa begins supporting runners in Tanzania.
• January 2001 Shoes given to a young boy, named Fabiano Joseph. Francis Robert Naali picks up a pair of shoes at the Shoe4Africa Tanzania sponsored race, as does Samson Ramadhani.
• August 2002 Francis Naali wins the Commonwealth Games Marathon.
• October 2005 Fabiano wins the World Half Marathon Championships.
• November 2005 Sitting in a Starbucks coffee shop in Manhattan (as they are prone to be doing) Pieter Langerhorst and Toby Tanser decide to take the next step, and make Shoe4Africa more directional.
• January 2006 The first signature Shoe4Africa race is held in Kenya, it is the largest women’s only event in the country. The event, at Pieter & Lornah Kiplagat’s camp, is held on a Friday, yet it is a huge success. The organization gets Not for Profit status in New York City. The Board of Directors is formed.
• March 2006 Samson wins the Commonwealth Games marathon in Melbourne.
• June 2006 Signature race series moves to Tanzania. With over 1550 runners the event is the largest women’s only event in Tanzania. Shoe4Africa has a presence in Morocco. Shoe4Africa sponsors two school girls for a four year athletic scholarship— Farida Makula, and Asia Swahele. Two weeks later Farida wins the national 1500 & 5000m title. Asia is second in the 15km.
• October 2006 Chanel Model of the year Samantha Tannehill model’s the new Shoe4Africa singlet. Another Supermodel, the charming and stunning Kim Alexis, joins the Board.
• November 2006 Leppin agrees to sponsor Shoe4Africa.
• December 2006 Farida is named Tanzanian female athlete of the year. The second Shoe4Africa race in Iten, and the third in Kenya for the year, has 2,900 participants, flagged off by Shoe4Africa board member ‘Nick Goose’ Anthony Edwards. Edwards’ wife, Jeanine Lobell, and the kids, Esmae & Wally, complete the Healthwalk with Susan Sirma, Phyllis Keino, and Lornah.
• January 2007 The Shoe4Africa Moses Kiptanui Training Camp opens and The Shoe4Africa United Football team is formed.
• February 2007 The PK Running Store in Holland Becomes the Official Dutch Running Store to Support Shoe4Africa. The Ivy League helps Shoe4Africa at the heps.
• March 2007 Anthony Edwards joins the Shoe4Africa Board of Director's
• June 2007 Shoe4Africa releases the first HIV/AIDS awareness info leaflet translated into the Kalenjin Language (10% of Kenya, Rift Valley). A Kalenjin man immediately writes in and says, "If only my parents had had this information; today they have AIDS and don’t even know what the disease is, there was nothing ever to help them."
• July 2007 Willy Komen, a product of the Shoe4Africa/MK training camp, wins Steeplechase Gold at the All Africa Championships. Shoe4Africa launches its The Kibera Project.
• August 2007 Cornelius Ndiwa (Kenya) from the Shoe4Africa Moses Kiptanui Training Camp wins the African Junior 1500m Champs 3:46.47. Beatrice Kiprop, from the camp, gets the Silver in the same event. Shoe4Africa NYC's women's running team merges with Riadha to form a Super squad.
• October 2007 Shoe4Africa/Riadha win the Boston Mayor's Cup. Hey there Delilah!
• November 2007 Grete Waitz joins the Shoe4Africa team. On November 5th the group launched its Kibera Project. Standing on the street for seven hours Shoe4Africa collected nearly 10,000 pairs (a number reached by the time they had arrived at the storage unit) of shoes for the Kibera project.
• December 2007 Shoe4Africa begins an allegiance with the United Arab Emirates. Samantha Dobson holds a shoedrive at the Dubai Half Marathon. The RAK Half Marathon, and the Dubai Marathon are planned for 2008. Former Miss World, Linda Petursdottir, joins the Shoe4Africa team. Shoe4Africa is featured on the Montel Williams show. Montel expresses a willingness to follow the cause. Mara Yamauchi joins Shoe4Africa.
• January 2008 Anthony Edwards becomes first Shoe4Africa's first chairman. Mara Yamauchi wins the Osaka Marathon.
• February 2008 Shoe4Africa Dubai collects 6,983 pairs of shoes at the marathon, and the RAK Half Marathon. Athletics Weekly writes article on Shoe4Africa.
• March 2008 Exceptional gathering at Shoe4Africa Peace Run in Iten, Kenya.
• April 2008 Packing shoes for Kibera, we work at the rate of 5,000 pairs in one day(!) Super model Cameron Alborzian, with his Spanish Supermodel girlfriend, come out and box shoes for Africa.
• May 2008 The Shoe4Africa Martin Lel race is a big success. CNN came to film as Olympic Champion Matthew Birir holds the finishers tape with Martin Lel and Robert Cheruiyot; both of whom are headed for the Beijing Olympics. Other guests include WJR 800m holder Japheth Kimutai, The two-time world champion Moses Tanui, Commonwealth Games champion Daniel Kimaiyo... and of course many other athletes and the entire Lel family!
The Shoe4Africa Eldoret run for peace was held at Kenya's largest IDP (refugee) camp where we marched 250 Eldoret school kids in to run with the kids from the camp. Ben Jipcho, former world record holder (a Kalenjin shot in the clashes) and Olympic Champion John Ngugi, from the Kikuyu tribe, were the guests of honor.
Shoe4Africa kicked off the hospital project after meeting with the Minister for health. Athletes Lornah Kiplagat, Moses Tanui, John Ngugi, and Magdalene Chemjor planted a ceremonius tree at the site of the proposed $15-million Shoe4Africa Children's Hospital.
• June 2008 David Willey writes about Shoe4Africa in the Editor's page of Runner's World.
• July 2008 Rosa Mota joins the Shoe4Africa team. We kick off the campaign to build the largest hospital in Africa on July 25th, Reykjavik Iceland. We need $15-million. By the end of July we have 1%!
• August 2008 Shoe4Africa Children Hospital campaign officially launched in Africa. See Daily Nation.